Sunday, August 05, 2018

Well, the Terrorists Came to Taos

Authorities swarmed a filthy compound in rural New Mexico on Friday and rescued 11 children, ages 1 to 15, after an armed standoff with one of two men, who have since been arrested.

Eight members of the Taos County Sheriff's Office converged on the residence in Amalia, described by authorities as a "makeshift compound" surrounded by tires and an earthen berm that had no electricity or running water, after securing a warrant to search the remote property for a missing 3-year-old boy who was allegedly kidnapped from Georgia by his father, 39-year-old Siraj Wahhaj.

Instead, deputies found five adults and 11 other children who "looked like third-world country refugees," living in squalor with little food and no clean water, according to Taos County Sheriff Jerry Hogrefe.

"I've been a cop for 30 years. I've never seen anything like this. Unbelievable," Hogrefe told ABC News Radio in a telephone interview. "These children were hungry, they were thirsty, they were filthy."